Graphisoft Cloud Services Hosting - Vulnerable or not?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Today's continuing problems with Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted apps, services and sites made me curious about where/how Graphisoft's various cloud services are hosted and how secure they are from interruption - which could be an issue when projects are on deadline.

I think Graphisoft uses Microsoft Azure services?  I read that some financial institutions utilize multiple cloud service providers so that if one has a problem, they can switch over to the other to maintain service.  Probably expensive, but curious if Graphisoft does anything like that?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/20/amazon-web-services-aws-outage-hits-dozens-websit...

[vlahtinen]

Hi, @Tamas Gaspar!

Is it possible to automatically back up projects and libraries outside of BIMcloud SaaS, for example, to a different cloud service? If not, how can backups be transferred to a local BIMcloud Basic instance in case the BIMcloud SaaS becomes unavailable?

[Lingwisyer]

With SAAS, and I assume Collaborate, you can set snapshots to be saved to an external location. As far as I know, they are just pln files so you can then manually load them onto a Basic server.

Ling.

[jl_lt]

yeah, but i assume that is a given

[vlahtinen]

Thank you for your reply. The snapshot saving method you mentioned applies to a local BIMcloud server installation (on-premise). I was asking about a similar backup option for BIMcloud SaaS. In the SaaS version, there isn’t a tray application to begin with.

[Lingwisyer]

If that is the case, looks like GS needs to fix up their documentation again then, as the BIMCloud SAAS page leads you there when introducing Snapshots.

I have not used SAAS, but even without a "tray application", there should still be a web portal. How are you managing anything on the BIMCloud? What sort of "external locations" are even supported is another question...

Ling.

[vlahtinen]

It seems there's an open wish for external backups from BIMcloud SaaS: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/BIMcloud-SaaS-External-Backup/idi-p/663125

This suggests that it's not currently possible to create external backups, which makes this part of @Tamas Gaspar's message a little unclear:

@Tamas Gaspar  wrote:

We suggest having the daily automatic project backup enabled in the BIMcloud application, and also having a BIMcloud basic set up on one of the machines. So, if an unlikely scenario happens, and the BIMcloud SaaS is not available, the office can continue working on the backups with the BIMcloud Basic.

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[Tamas Gaspar]

Dear All,

I’m sorry my previous comment was not clear enough—let me clarify.

At the moment, it is not possible to save BIMcloud Snapshots to an external location, and we cannot batch-export them either.

In the event of a global issue, I would recommend using the local caches instead. Here’s what I mean:

• The office is working on BIMcloud SaaS, and for some reason, they suddenly cannot access it. They confirm with support that it’s a global outage at a third-party provider, but they still need to continue working.

• The last BIMcloud Snapshot was created the previous night, and a lot of work has been done since then. So they don't want to use that.

• Users can copy their local cache files (database.fdb) and rename the extension to .pln. This PLN file will contain the latest state of their project. (Please never modify the original database.fdb file! Always create a copy of it before renaming it!)

• One person can share the PLN on a previously prepared local BIMcloud Basic server. Others can join this project and copy all their modifications from their own converted .fdb files. (Some more details can be found here.)

• Once BIMcloud SaaS is back online, they can save the Teamwork project from BIMcloud Basic as a PLN and re-share it on BIMcloud SaaS.

This workflow ensures the least amount of data loss and provides the smoothest transition during such critical events. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary - but it’s always better to be prepared for emergencies.

Best regards,
Tamás